Along with Haswell though is the release of the new Z87 chipset and with THAT, about 100 different ASUS motherboards. I exaggerate, but only a little. In our live stream that aired for about 4.5 hours, JJ and I discussed about 20 different motherboard ranging from Mini-ITX options to the budget-minded Z87-A and even the ROG Maximus VI Extreme!

Below you will find an on-demand version of the stream, broken up into five segments.

ASUS Z87 Motherboard Segmentation

This first segment details the mindset ASUS had when creating the four different motherboard product lines: Mainstream, Workstation, TUF and ROG. Why do they need all of these options and what features and quality points are common across the entire families?

ASUS Mainstream Z87 Motherboard Lineup

ASUS' new mainstream line of motherboards with the z87 chipset range from the Z87-A to the Z87-Deluxe/Dual. JJ talks about the features that are added as you move up the product stack so that you can find the option that fits your platform needs and budget.

While we run around with our hair on fire trying to get ready for the Intel Haswell and Z87 product launch this weekend, I wanted to let everyone know about a live stream event we will be holding on Tuesday, June 4th. JJ from ASUS, a crowd favorite for sure, will be joining us LIVE in studio to talk all about the new lineup of ASUS Z87 motherboards. We'll also discuss performance and overclocking capabilities of the new processor and platform.

ASUS Z87 and Haswell Live Stream

10am PT / 1pm ET - June 4th

Be sure you stop by and join in the show! Questions will be answered, prizes will be given out and fun will be had! Who knows, maybe we can break some stuff live as well?? On hand to give away to those of you joining the live stream, we'll have these prizes:

2 x ASUS Z87 Motherboards

1 x ASUS Graphics card

Methods for winning will be decided closer to the event, but if you are watching live, you'll be included. And we'll ship anywhere in the world!

ASUS and I also want the event to be interactive, so we want your questions. We'll of course being paying attention to the chat room on our live page but you'll have better luck if you submit your questions about the ASUS Z87 products and Haswell processors before hand, in the comments section below. You don't have to register to ask and we'll have the ability to read them beforehand!

I'll update this post with more information after the reviews and stories start to hit, so keep an eye here for more details!!

Power and Value

We have seen our fair share of mini-ITX cases and system builds over the last six months, including rigs from Digital Storm and AVADirect. They attempt to offer a balance between performance, power, noise and size and some do it better than others. With the continued development of the mini-ITX form factor more users than ever are realizing you can get nearly top-end performance for gaming in a smaller package.

Today we are taking a look at the iBuyPower Revolt, in particular the Revolt R770, the highest end base offering of the system. Built around a small, but not tiny, PC chassis iBuyPower is able to include some pretty impressive specifications:

Intel Core i7-3770K processor

Custom built Z77 mini-ITX motherboard

NZXT CPU water cooler

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 2GB graphics cards

8GB DDR3-1600 memory

120 GB Intel 320 Series SSD

1TB Western Digital Blue hard drive

You get all of this in a case that is only 16-in x 16-in x 4.5-in built with a glossy black and white color scheme. The company claims that the Revolt was "designed to be a gaming system for any location" including a home theater, a dorm room or in your study. It includes "vents and air channels positioned precisely to deliver cool ambient air exactly where it is needed" and "integrated atmospheric lighting system is customizable in color."

Check out or quick video review below and then follow on to the full post for more photos of the system and a quick check of performance!

Update: Did you miss the live stream? Watch the on-demand replay below and learn all about the Frame Rating system, FCAT, input latency and more!!

I know, based solely on the amount of traffic and forum discussion, that our readers have really adopted and accepted our Frame Rating graphics testing methodology. Based on direct capture of GPU output via an external system and a high end capture card, our new systems have helped users see GPU performance a in more "real-world" light that previous benchmarks would not allow.

I also know that there are lots of questions about the process, the technology and the results we have shown. In order to try and address these questions and to facilitate new ideas from the community, we are hosting a PC Perspective Live Stream on Thursday afternoon.

Joining me will be NVIDIA's Tom Petersen, a favorite of the community, to talk about NVIDIA's stance on FCAT and Frame Rating, as well as just talk about the science of animation and input.

The primary part of this live stream will be about education - not about bashing one particular product line or talking up another. And part of that education is your ability to interact with us live, ask questions and give feedback. During the stream we'll be monitoring the chat room embedded on http://pcper.com/live and I'll be watching my Twitter feed for questions from the audience. The easiest way to get your question addressed though will be to leave a comment or inquiry here in this post below. It doesn't require registration and this will allow us to think about the questions before hand, giving it a better chance of being answered during the stream.